Food and Resource Economics Department
Agricultural Experiment Stations
College of Agriculture
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences December 1981
University of Florida, Gainesville 32611

ABSTRACT

Fresh water use in Florida increased from 4,104 million gallons per
day in 1970 to 6,727 million gallons per day in 1977. One quarter of the
use was towards domestic consumption with the other three quarters going
to production activities. There was also an apparent increase in the pro-
portion devoted to production activities in North Florida.

As Florida continues its rapid growth in both population and business,
the demand for fresh water will increase. It is expected data useful in
the economic analysis of water demand will gain in value if such projections
are realized.

One of the most important natural resources, if not the most neces-
sary because of the life support function, is water. Florida is generally
considered to be a state with sufficient rainfall and fresh water supplies,
but is susceptible in certain areas and times to drought. Also, some areas
have experienced reduced water table levels .in aquifers, and salt water in-
trusion is a major problem in several coastal counties. These problems
have been exacerbated by rapid population growth. Further population and
economic growth is expected. As a result, the importance of understanding
the nature and characteristics of water use and demand has increased.
There are two purposes of this publication: 1) to provide a
summary of water use by major economic category and region in Florida; and
2) to indicate trends in water use, and location of that use. It is
recognized by the authors that the same water use estimates are presented
in publications of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) [Pride, 1973;
Leach, 1978; Leach and Healy, 1980]. In fact,:these publications served
as the data base. Publication of these same numbers is justified on the
economic notion that water demand needs to be first considered in two
general categories--consumer demand and producer demand. This paradigm
is imposed on the USGS data set. As a result, the data are organized in
this report in a manner which will be more useful to economic analysts or
others concerned with the economics of water use.

SOURCE AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

As noted, the data used in this study were obtained from the U.S.
Geological Survey estimates of water use in Florida for the years 1970,

LANCE W. RODAN is assistant in agricultural economics and GARY D. LYNNE
is associate professor of food and resource economics.

1

1975, and 1977. Since the five water management districts' were estab-
lished in 1972, the 1970 data were not broken down by districts but by
counties. To arrive at estimates comparable with later years, the 1970
proportions of water used by a county shared by districts was calculated
using the water use proportions from the 1975 data. These proportions
were used to adjust the 1970 county data. In a few activities there were
no percentages available from the 1975 data, but there was water use in
1970. For these instances, each district received half the value for
fresh water withdrawn in the affected counties.
Detailed county data are provided in the USGS publications. Only
water district and state totals are presented herein. Also, price and cost
data are not presented because these data are simply not available at the
current time.
Fresh water withdrawals for food and air conditioning activities in
1970 were not estimated. These uses were accounted for under the "other"
column values in that year, so, total water use is still comparable among
the three years of data.

CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION DEFINITIONS

Consumers (individuals and households) use water for drinking, cooking,
car washing, cleaning, etc. These are all considered "consumption"
activities in economics. Consumption goods are those used directly by the
final consumer.
Production activities (e.g., mining, irrigation of food and fiber
crops, chemical processing, etc.) combine water with labor, capital, land,
management, and other inputs to produce goods. Thus, water is "converted" or
used in the conversion process of other goods which are (generally)
marketed. Water demand for production is derived from and affected by the
demand for some other good (like phosphate fertilizer, chemicals, food,
etc.).

The SWFWMD and SFWMD areas (Figure 1) accounted for about 65 percent
of the consumption use over the years 1970, 1975, and 1977 (Table 1).
Unfortunately, 1970 data are not exactly comparable to the later years
because rural use was not available by water district in 1970. Rural
domestic use is a relatively small amount in most southern regions of
the State, which makes the SWFWMD and SFWMD estimates comparable within
a reasonable level of error, over the years.
There were some slight shifts in relative amounts used among regions
for production activities. The NWFWMD, SRWMD, and STJWMD increased their
shares of total water pumped for production while the SWFWMD and SFWMD
decreased slightly. This may indicate a more rapid increase in water using
production activities in northern Florida. Changes in overall total pro-
portions are due primarily to changes in the water used in production
activities.
Total water demand increased dramatically from4,104million gallons
per day (mgd) in 1970 and reached 6,727 mgd in 1977 (Table 1). Changes in
production water dominated with an increase of 2,246 mgd to 5,302 mgd
in 1977. Consumption uses accounted for a 377.mgd increase to 1,425 mgd
in 1977 (Table 1).

TYPES OF USE AND TRENDS

Water for the production of goods and services dominated the water
demand in Florida, averaging 75 to 80 percent of total use over the
2
period (Table 2). There is considerable variation among regions. Con-
sumption activities in the SRWMD accounted for only 6 to 8 percent, with
the remaining 92 to 94 percent in production over the period.
Trends also varied widely by region. Relative proportions remained
relatively constant in the SRWMD, SWFWMD, and the SFWMD (Table 2). The NWFWMD
experienced a shift to production activities, as did the STJWMD.

2
The 75 to 80 percent estimate is conservative, since many production
activities are included in the consumption estimates. Currently available
data sets on water use do not generally separate domestic consumption and
commercial water use. Thus, many production activities (small processing
plants, stores, restaurants, motels and hotels, etc.) are included in the
"consumption" data.

S. St. Johns River
^. Water Management
District

Northwest Florida CL -d
Water Management
District

Suwannee River
Water Management
District

Southwest Florida
Water Management ".
District

South Florida
Water Management
District Y

Figure i. Water management districts of Florida

Table l.--Major economic categories of fresh water demand by location and year, proportions by
location in Florida, 1970, 1975, and 1977

Water Water use Proportion by location
Management
Year District Consumption Production Total Consumption Production Totale

bRural domestic data were not available by district in 1970. Thus, consumption (domestic) esti-
mates by district in 1970 are only for urban use.

CThe percentages provided in this column for 1970 represent percentages of the total urban use of
882.95 mgd.
dA base total of 3939.4 mgd was used to calculate these percentages (41'04.4 165.0 3939.4).

Table 2.--Major economic categories of fresh water demand by location and year, proportions by
major use in Florida, 1970, 1975, and 1977

Water Water use Proportion by major use
Management b
Year Districta Consumption Production Total Consumption Production

"The proportions by district will be slightly incorrect due to no data on rural domestic use.
The proportions in consumption will be slightly lower than actual in the more rural districts.

This number includes 30.00 mgd/day from livestock not present in the values under produc-
tion activities in 1970.

7

More specific data on types and trends of water use are presented in
Tables 3 and 4. Water use for irrigation dominates, accounting for 41 to
51 percent of total use (Table 4). No other individual production uses
accounted for more than 8 percent with most accounting for 1 to 4 percent
of total use (Tables 3 and 4).
Phosphate mining is located predominantly in the Southwest Florida
Water Management District (Tables 3 and 4). Water used for phosphate
mining decreased from 318 mgd in 1970 to 181 mgd in 1977.
Water use for chemical production has shown a marked increase in the
Southwest Florida Water Management District. The 0.80 mgd estimate in
1970 increased to 9 mgd in 1975 and to 91 mgd in 1977 (Table 3).
Thermoelectric power generation experienced a spectacular increase
in water use from 1970 to 1975. This water use increased from 19 mgd to
1,699 mgd in 1975, with a slight reduction to 1,370 in 1970 (Table 3).
Percentage shares among water districts changed from essentially 0 to
as high as 9 percent (Table 4) over the five year period.
Urban consumption of water in Florida increased in the period of
1970 to 1975 from 883 mgd to 1,146 mgd, or by 263 mgd, and by 86 mgd
between 1975 and 1977. Rural consumption remained fairly constant (Tables
3 and 4). The proportion of total water used in consumption, both urban
and rural, remained relatively constant. Rural use stayed at approximately
3 to 4 percent while urban use varied from 16 to 21 percent of the total
(Table 4).

PER CAPITAL WATER USE IN CONSUMPTION

Per capital water use in consumption was relatively stable over the
1970 to 1977 time period (Table 5). Unfortunately, data were not avail-
able on rural domestic consumption prior to 1970, as rural consumption
included livestock production water in the earlier data. However, it is
clear that per capital consumption more than doubled over the period 1950
to 1977, since the 81 gallons per day estimate for 1950 would have been
even smaller if the production (livestock) water had not been included
in the consumption data.
SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS

Data on water use were derived from publications of the United States
Geological Survey. Water demand was presented by the economic categories

I

Table 3.-Yearly water demand by location, year, and specific use categories, 1970, 1975. and 1977

Consumption Production Activities

SPhosphate Pulp & paper Chemical Limerock Citrus Food Air Thermoelectric b a
District Urban Rurala Total Irrigation Livestock mining processing production mining processing processing conditioning8 power Other Total Total

"production" and "consumption" over the period 1970 to 1972. Consumption
categories are all those where water goes directly to final demand, as for
drinking water, cooking and other domestic use. The production category
includes all those economic activities where water is used with other
inputs to produce some good or product.
Water demand in Florida is increasing. Water use has increased
in both production and consumption activities.
There were changes in the relative proportions of consumption and
production water, especially in more northern areas. The proportion of
the water going to production increased significantly in the northern
reaches of the state, and stayed relatively stable in south Florida.

Water in production activities was shown to account for 75 to 80 per-
cent of the total water demand with water in consumption the remaining
20 to 25 percent. There was a large variation among water districts in
the state, however. Irrigation for food and fiber production accounted
for the largest water demand averaging between 41 and 51 percent of the
total. Water for thermoelectric power (cooling) generation increased
dramatically. Phosphate mining showed a marked decrease in water demand
while chemical processing showed a significant increase in some areas.
Water for consumption increased by 377 million gallons per day
from 1970 to 1977, but per capital use stayed relatively constant at
158 to 163 gallons per day. Per capital consumption in 1950 was about 81
gallons per day.
If expected economic changes and population growth projections for
Florida actually occur, it is expected the value of information on water
use and the associated economic data will increase. Said somewhat dif-
ferently, as water moves from the category of an abundant resource to
that of a more scarce resource, the economics of water use become 'in-
creasingly important. Accurate water use estimates will be necessary and
price and water cost estimates associated with these water demand levels will
also be needed.

Water demand has increased significantly over the 1970 1977 period.
No attempt is made herein to explain why this occurred. Further research
is needed to determine the economic factors that bring about any type of
overall change as well as shifts and changes between and among production
and consumption activities.